Coronavirus

[TheHowieLama]

Certainly there is a demand for 150k a day - so if they are not being done, then there isn't that capacity.

[Captain Turdseye]

 

[John102]

30 minutes ago, Shooter in the Motor said:

I'm curious how they can demonstrate they have capacity for those numbers when they are only testing a lower number. It almost seems like a deliberately unprovable statistic?

This all changes on a daily basis but last I read the capacity to test for covid was circa 150k but we weren't getting to that number as their werent the tests to carry out I.e not enough swabs or other issues with getting the tests to people.

 

The thing is one big shell game. Bizarrely people think we hit the 100k target and now we are being asked to look elsewhere. I'm sure we will hit the 200k capacity number and when it turns out we aren't actually completing 200k tests it will be due to some sort of logistical problem like global demand for the chemicals and then another target will be kicked down the road.

[Colonel Bumcunt]

i like the ghana approach to testing.

combined cluster samples

[Sugar Ape]

 

[Bjornebye]

1 minute ago, Sugar Ape said:

 

Does she wanna be startin' something' 

[pauliescouse]

[Red Phoenix]

1 hour ago, TK421 said:

It would require a complete transformation in British politics and how people voted last time. I can't see it happening. 

 

I think Tory popularity will stay the same or increase, irrespective of the death toll.  If they get Brexit through all will be forgiven.  

 

What's happened here should be enough to transform it to some extent, but yeah I guess we'll have to wait and see if what's happened has a lasting effect. If it doesn't, fuck knows what'll ever get these bastards out of government.

[redinblack62]

2 hours ago, cloggypop said:

Being in a pub where everyone has to give you 1.5m space sounds fucking boss. 

Well jealous.

 

Mind you in the pub near me even before the lockdown distancing was no problem, there was hardly anyone in.

[Mudface]

2 hours ago, Shooter in the Motor said:

Am I reading it right that Boris Johnson has set a target of 200,000 tests per day by end of May? They still haven't reached the target they set for April.

It's the latest, 'look, a squirrel!' bullshit. For a government with a massive majority and the best part of 5 years before an election, they really do seem to relish being in bunker mode, spouting disinformation. It's weird.

[Section_31]

1 minute ago, Mudface said:

It's the latest, 'look, a squirrel!' bullshit. For a government with a massive majority and the best part of 5 years before an election, they really do seem to relish being in bunker mode, spouting disinformation. It's weird.

What's weird is that if you put your shit out there for all to see, nobody seems to give a fuck.

 

People will pour over whether of not Joe Biden sexually molested someone years ago, but Trump will just basically brag about doing it twice a day and it almost leaves people with nowhere to go.

 

Same with Johnson. Most MPs will go to great lengths not to do or say anything that will be used against them in case they're caught out lying, but he'll just lie and lie big and often.

 

It's almost like we as a society smell weakness, and if someone seems like they're on the run we go after them, but if they push though it we sort of shit out and give up.

 

I actually think Farage pioneered it. You'd see him at these hustings and Clegg, Cameron and Brown would be like "yeah immigration, hmmm yeah we'll have to look at the ins and outs, some of it's good some of it's not ideal and blah blah" then Farage would just come out and say "we should ban all immigration as most of them have got aids."

 

Everything would stop, like a Bishop Brennan moment, but nothing happens, then people like Cameron saw it and started to slowly adapt his own language accordingly.

[Mudface]

5 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

What's weird is that if you put your shit out there for all to see, nobody seems to give a fuck.

 

People will pour over whether of not Joe Biden sexually molested someone years ago, but Trump will just basically brag about doing it twice a day and it almost leaves people with nowhere to go.

 

Same with Johnson. Most MPs will go to great lengths not to do or say anything that will be used against them in case they're caught out lying, but he'll just lie and lie big and often.

 

It's almost like we as a society smell weakness, and if someone seems like they're on the run we go after them, but if they push though it we sort of shit out and give up.

 

I actually think Farage pioneered it. You'd see him at these hustings and Clegg, Cameron and Brown would be like "yeah immigration, hmmm yeah we'll have to look at the ins and outs, some of it's good some of it's not ideal and blah blah" then Farage would just come out and say "we should ban all immigration as most of them have got aids."

 

Everything would stop, like a Bishop Brennan moment, but nothing happens, then people like Cameron saw it and started to slowly adapt his own language accordingly.

Yep, I think people have priced it in and will go with a person/ party no matter what they do because they really like a particular policy. Farage- blokey Brexit; Cameron- austerity Tory; Trump- MAGA. Anything else about these cunts just gets filtered out. Single issue politics, facile slogans.

 

Before the inevitable, butwhatabout- Corbyn had this to some degree too, 'at fucking last, a Labour leader'. 'He's a bit shit as a leader though.'  *bunker mode*

[lifetime fan]

I see Matt Hancocks green badge bollocks for health and social care staff is getting fucked off already. 
 

I’m just waiting for Government funding to local authorities for health and social care to be decimated again by the tories. 
 

Cunts. 

[Barrington Womble]

1 hour ago, John102 said:

This all changes on a daily basis but last I read the capacity to test for covid was circa 150k but we weren't getting to that number as their werent the tests to carry out I.e not enough swabs or other issues with getting the tests to people.

 

The thing is one big shell game. Bizarrely people think we hit the 100k target and now we are being asked to look elsewhere. I'm sure we will hit the 200k capacity number and when it turns out we aren't actually completing 200k tests it will be due to some sort of logistical problem like global demand for the chemicals and then another target will be kicked down the road.

Sorry I don't understand. If we had capacity for 150k tests per day, we wouldn't be out of swabs or anything else. Today there's more demand than available tests, so whatever number they test each day was that days capacity, regardless of if they have missing swabs or lose an entire testing centre. 

[Mudface]

3 hours ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

 

Gorgeous.

 

I see capes are still rigueur though. Did the Incredibles teach us nothing?

[John102]

8 minutes ago, Barry Wom said:

Sorry I don't understand. If we had capacity for 150k tests per day, we wouldn't be out of swabs or anything else. Today there's more demand than available tests, so whatever number they test each day was that days capacity, regardless of if they have missing swabs or lose an entire testing centre. 

I agree.

 

I think when it was discussed earlier, the capacity they spoke of was testing labs ability to process the tests. This is obviously being under utilized due to a host of reasons.

 

I assume the reason they are using this as the method of capacity, rather than how many tests they have actually carried out, is so they can still push the narrative that capacity is higher than demand and then shift the blame elsewhere for the failure to test.

[Dr Arthur De Sabre]

7 hours ago, Bjornebye said:

What are you expecting? 

Not much to be fair, i don’t have much faith in him. Whilst I hip I am wrong, he hasn’t show much so far.

we were told how electable he was, so we know he has the centrists on board, would be nice if in a time of national emergency he want after the government a bit more, Held the press to account and whilst the printed press are in their knees, wasn’t giving exclusives to fucking right wing rags.

as I’ve posted previously,  this isn’t akin to a war, it’s more in common with closing down the pits in the 80’s (I know labour closed plenty in the 70s, but I wasn’t about for it, and these seems to be a lot less hate attached by the communities).

The Tories will put out anything for deflection, fill the news with Johnson’s kid and bullshit and bluster, he should be into them at every opportunity for lives lost, health workers, care homes and the rest. If he is not utterly relentless now is it any wonder the government maintain high approval ratings.

Corbyn was smeared with lies, these pricks in charge, all you have to go after them with is truth, indisputable truth a it’s an open goal, show was in the other foot and those conservative bastards would be right at it.

and if the rags won’t print it in your exclusives go somewhere like Byline Times and get the message out.
might you nnow

make some of the more left leaning actual

members if the party think there is something for them to stick around for.

none of this affects taxation, policy, so the centrists should still be happy.

[Dr Arthur De Sabre]

4 hours ago, Mudface said:

At least the foreign press know the score- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/06/complacent-uk-draws-global-criticism-for-covid-19-response-boris-johnson

 

 

 

One thing the government learned from Italy was you don’t want TV pictures showing the elderly being turned away from hospital to die alone, just keep them in the care homes and away from cameras to die. Media managed, and after the way they managed the sycophantic political

leads at BBC and ITV in the run up to the election, and the indirect support they got from the supposedly left leaning press over the last 3 years, who can blame them.

[Dr Arthur De Sabre]

4 hours ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

How are they going to police that. It will be bedlam.

It’s the Netherlands not England, less likely to get quite as many arseholes who want to sing about winning wars and defeating Covid as they slobber down their Union Jack wife beaters.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Mudface said:

It's the latest, 'look, a squirrel!' bullshit. For a government with a massive majority and the best part of 5 years before an election, they really do seem to relish being in bunker mode, spouting disinformation. It's weird.

They're saying that 84,000 tests were conducted on Monday, with 24,000 not used.

 

[Mudface]

Just now, Shooter in the Motor said:

They're saying that 84,000 tests were conducted on Monday, with 24,000 not used.

 

Not sure what you mean by the gif, so apologies if I've not got it.

 

They have the capacity for 108K tests. But they're not doing them. Why aren't they targeted, for example, at teachers? The next bullshit target is 200K capacity. But again, it needs to be targeted.

 

The 100K tests, and Johnson's 200K target today at PMQs are just headline grabbing nonsense. We need to know how many tests are needed to let the 'lockdown' be lifted.

 

Just to let football go ahead seems an insuperable problem, why should any any other sector be different?

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Mudface said:

Not sure what you mean by the gif, so apologies if I've not got it.

 

They have the capacity for 108K tests. But they're not doing them. Why aren't they targeted, for example, at teachers? The next bullshit target is 200K capacity. But again, it needs to be targeted.

 

The 100K tests, and Johnson's 200K target today at PMQs are just headline grabbing nonsense. We need to know how many tests are needed to let the 'lockdown' be lifted.

 

Just to let football go ahead seems an insuperable problem, why should any any other sector be different?

It all seems to be made up and the answers they give seem to be made up based on made up information. They say they have capacity for 100K tests, that 84K were performed and that 24K were not used (does that mean the tests existed but no-one wanted them?) so they actually had capacity for 108K. What has happened to the 24K? Do they get rolled over? Do they even exist? It just looks like they're making up figures to cover up the fact that they are not going about this the right way at all. Someone mentioned Ghana earlier and I looked them up, they are actually using drones apparently to assist in transporting tests. Is that being done here or are they still doing this mobile testing sites that people have to drive to? If someone doesn't have access to a car, what happens then?

 

As you say, set a target (teachers, shop workers etc) and then find a way to action it. Politics really does belong in the 1900s as it's red tape, arse covering and slopey shoulders.

[Pureblood]

Good article on criminally negligent Tory scum.

 

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/coronavirus-banality-evil-200505075710643.html

 

From the very start, a narrow-minded nationalistic agenda has shaped the way the government of the United Kingdom has handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only has the UK refused to cooperate with the rest of the European Union in coordinating the acquisition of necessary medical equipment, but it has consistently refused to take the global nature of the pandemic seriously. These decisions have resulted in an ad hoc and completely inadequate response to the calamity, leaving more than 30,000 Brits dead so far. 

 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his ilk have failed to do much of anything efficiently during this unprecedented crisis: From the unfulfilled promise and continued failure to carry out mass public testing through the bungling of the importation of necessary protective gear for front-line workers, to misleading the public about the number of deaths by omitting, until recently, those who have not died in hospital.

 

Going back to Hannah Arendt's notion of the "banality of evil" may help us make sense of what is going on, only, one would have to introduce an important twist to her claims.

 

Arendt first coined the phrase when covering Adolf Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem for The New Yorker magazine. She invoked the term to describe how Eichmann, a key bureaucratic functionary of the Nazi party, carried out his technocratic duties without questioning their purpose.

The term was meant to capture the specific way in which Nazi crimes against humanity had been committed in a quotidian, systematic, and efficient way, without these crimes being named or opposed.

 

What we can learn from the pandemic-stricken UK is that the banality of evil can take form not just through the efficient execution of one's bureaucratic and technocratic tasks. Rather, it can also take form through the carrying out of bureaucratic tasks in an incompetent and negligent way. 

 

When certain national objectives are ostensibly prioritised but the mechanisms and actions to achieve these goals are repeatedly carried out incompetently - leading to human misery and death on a large scale - this, too, can and should be called the banality of evil. 

 

Indeed, at least some members of the UK government who came to power to carry out Brexit, and who are currently hiding behind nationalist discourse and diverting all responsibility for their failures to "science" rather than to their own ineptness, can be said to fit this bill. Their actions - or lack thereof - have to be called evil given their horrific human cost.

 

We know that many of these deaths could have been prevented, as the low death rate in other countries that were better prepared, have robust public health services, and took swift and decisive action proves.

 

Moreover, the fact that those dying are disproportionately vulnerable and racialised segments of the population suggests that many front-line workers - from health and care workers to bus drivers, grocery store staff and cleaning workers - many of whom are BAME (Black and minority ethnic), have been left unconscionably exposed to COVID-19. This, to put it simply, is criminal, if not murderous, negligence.

Incompetence and negligence, however, have characterised the UK political landscape for quite some time, and this ineptness is inextricably linked to years of neoliberal austerity policies in which large sections of the public sector have been ruthlessly cut, privatised, and outsourced.

 

Today, we know that experts had warned government officials that a dangerous pandemic was likely and that the NHS would not be able to cope without a dramatic increase in public funding. But the Conservative government simply ignored the warnings, while continuing to underfund and outsource health services.

 

And even though the acute shortage of private protective equipment (PPE) is the result of this inaction and privatisation, the Johnson administration has yet to intervene and ensure efficient procurement and distribution of equipment, leaving it, once again, to market actors, some of whom have gouged prices and profiteered from the shortage.

 

Such incompetence and negligence should also be considered a banal form of evil, since they, too, are intimately related to nefarious ideological and political priorities of governments, and are informed by the gruesome idea that some lives are expendable.

 

Just as in the case of Arendt's efficient banality of evil, the Johnson government's repeated failures to act swiftly and effectively can and should be considered evil.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

29 minutes ago, Mudface said:

Not sure what you mean by the gif, so apologies if I've not got it.

 

They have the capacity for 108K tests. But they're not doing them. Why aren't they targeted, for example, at teachers? The next bullshit target is 200K capacity. But again, it needs to be targeted.

 

The 100K tests, and Johnson's 200K target today at PMQs are just headline grabbing nonsense. We need to know how many tests are needed to let the 'lockdown' be lifted.

 

Just to let football go ahead seems an insuperable problem, why should any any other sector be different?

 

They just pluck some imaginary figure out of the air and go with it mate, who is going to question it in the media these days? If they are questioned they just lie and change the subject = modern (Tory cunt) political chat. Would Labour or anyone else do better? Hard to say, especially when they are so shy on the subject at the moment. It would seem that they are more arsed about the economical side of things, especially when the virus will for the best part get rid of people who are a so called strain on things, despite the majority paying their dues over many years. The UK and US are just showing how fucked their systems are when you compare it to others, where empathy and the best for the majority outweighs political gain. Things will only change when the cunts who vote/support these right wing bastards are dealt a personal blow, otherwise they'll just follow as usual. The minute they are themselves affected, they'll turn. That could happen quicker than you think as well, most people love the credit approach to life and they'll be hit the worst when the economical fall out happens. Of course, certain Gov'ts will just turn the tide on China as they deflect blame from their own incompetence. I'm not trying to be a scaremonger here, but I fear that when this virus  has run its course we'll be thrown into a cold war scenario where loads of threats will be made and could easily escalate. Maybe that is what certain Gov'ts want....them against us attitude, because they love using the patriotic slant when it suits the cunts, that way they can slide in all sorts of shit and their subjects just bow and lap the shit up. 

[Code]

8 hours ago, Bjornebye said:

Hotels in Liverpool are still shut FYI 

Last booking was the coming weekend.

 

The reason I asked was because some might still be open, there have been a few over here, but most have been closed down.